Up all night

Posted on May 8, 2013 by admin

So, I was hoping that my post yesterday would make it sound like tons of fun to be here and maybe inspire more of our friends to come visit. (Maybe? Hopefully?) Well, don’t book those tickets yet, because our health track record during friend visits is turning out to be pretty poor (oddly, that has not been true during family visits, when we’ve been healthy the vast majority of the time). Last night, Liam was up all night, sick. (Thus, so were we, although not sick ourselves.) At first, he was just fussy and uncomfortable, but around 4:30/5:00 (who can remember after a night like that) he got a fever and got really miserable. After a dose of ibuprofen, he finally got to sleep. At 6:30 this morning. Of course.

I don’t think we kept the entire household up all night or anything, but I don’t think anyone here got a full, restful night’s sleep, either. We’ve certainly experienced the joys of sick kids on vacation, as well, but there’s something particularly unfortunate about our kids getting sick, seemingly whenever anyone with kids tries to come and visit us.

For now, Liam’s staying happy with medicine at regular intervals, but given that nap time today didn’t go any better than last night did, we may be in for a multi-day stretch of wakeful, miserable children (and parents), which, unfortunately, doesn’t make for a very fun time for our visiting friends. I’m hoping that we haven’t gotten Eva sick, at least. That won’t be a good way for them to remember their visit here (just ask Pam and Joshua). And if anyone else plans to visit, I promise to do my best to keep the kids healthy.

Vienna with friends

Posted on May 7, 2013 by admin

We haven’t had many of our friends take us up on our standing offer to play host here in Vienna, but we’ve had a memorable time on each occasion that someone has. We’ve hosted my mom, two of my sisters, Dan’s parents, Dan’s uncle, our friends Pam and Joshua, and now our friends Fotis, Claudia and Eva. We love it, each time. Of course, it’s wonderful to get to spend so much time hanging out and catching up with friends and family (the sensation of feeling like we’re picking up just where we left off is marvelous) but it also gives us a new appreciation for how fantastic Vienna is. We get to see it through fresh eyes each time someone comes to see us.

After two years, we’ve established a pretty good repertoire of sightseeing stops and tours. We always suggest that everyone goes to see St. Stephen’s, the Hofburg, the Volksgarten, the Rathaus, the Graben, Michaelerplatz and Schönbrunn. We love to help everyone make the most of the amazing public transportation system. We love sharing all of our favorite sights along the ring. And, of course, we have our very favorite authentic-but-not-too-touristy restaurants, and our must have local bakery items.

And each time that we share those things with our friends, we appreciate them a little bit more. It’s surprising to realize it, but after two years of living in Austria, there are parts of it — some of our favorite, most wonderful parts — that we’ve stopped appreciating as much as we ought to. We take a lot of this lifestyle for granted these days. Sharing it with friends and family reminds us to be amazed and inspired all over again.

Cabin fever

Posted on May 6, 2013 by admin

I’ve lived in various apartments for nearly 15 years. As a parent, I’ve only ever been an apartment dweller. That comes with good and bad points. On the downside, there is a near-constant worry about how much the kids are disturbing the neighbors, whether because they’re crying inconsolably as an infant at 2 a.m., waking up and dumping out bins of toys at 7:30, or screaming about not wanting to take a bath at 9 p.m. (exacerbated by living in Austria where we keep our windows open for so much of the year). We also have no yard, so we have no quick and easy way to get outside for a few minutes. Going outside always means “going out”, with all of the hassle which that entails. On the other hand, we have no yard work or exterior home maintenance projects to take up our weekends, nor do we have to worry about how stinky the dirty diapers will be by trash day, since we just take them to the dumpster on the other side of our building, and that gets emptied several times each week.

We’ve always done well parenting in an apartment. Without easily accessible outdoor space, we let our kids do some things indoors (running, riding bikes, blowing bubbles) that other parents wouldn’t dream of. Our current place offers a nice little terrace where the kids can use sidewalk chalk or play with bubbles without getting looks from grumpy neighbors, which helps. We do our best to keep the noise down, and I guess we’re doing ok, since no one has complained in the 2 years that we’ve been here (or perhaps our neighbors are just suffering in silence). In our last apartment, we had several neighbors with kids about the same ages as ours (or at least near enough that they could remember what it was like and stir up a little empathy) but here, even in a much bigger building, we’re one of only a few families with small children. And, being in Austria, people are just generally quieter and well behaved, so we definitely feel the pressure sometimes.

Just recently, I think the kids may have reached their limit with this arrangement. In the past few months, the boys have gotten to an age and energy level that makes me wish we had a yard we could just pop out into. We are also suddenly finding it very difficult to keep the boys quiet, settled and behaving in the house at critical “keep quiet” times, like first thing on Sunday morning. Lately, they’re getting harder to contain. There’s more volume, more energy, more climbing, more wildness.

We’re still managing — we’ve started to use the living room as a quiet zone on weekend mornings, with closed doors, closed windows and lots of quiet tv to try and contain the sound. But for our next place, some kind of outside space, even a small one, will be a priority. (Although, I imagine in a town house or house with a small yard, there still wouldn’t be outdoor playtime on weekend mornings. Maybe the answer, rather than a yard, is central air, closed windows, and no downstairs neighbors.)

Spring thunderstorm

Posted on May 3, 2013 by admin

I woke up to thunder yesterday morning. I was grateful that it was just me that woke up, and not the kids, since it was just after 5:00 a.m. — early enough that I did not want to really be up but late enough that if they had woken up they’d probably have been up for the day. We don’t get thunder all that often here in Vienna (notable to me because in the mid-Atlantic US, where I’m from, thunderstorms are a near-daily reality in the summer months).

We usually have a fairly rainy and windy April, but we didn’t this year, which made the thunderstorm yesterday more remarkable and very welcome. We got the thunder first. It continued for nearly half an hour before the rain came. I was surprised that the birds kept singing throughout the thunder — I feel like they don’t do that at home. Or maybe I am just now noticing because we keep our windows open. They didn’t stop singing until the rain got really intense, almost an hour later, which also necessitated getting up to close the west-facing windows.

It rained most of yesterday and part of this morning. It’s the most rain we’ve had here in a while, and I know we haven’t had thunder since last summer. I’m glad to have the rain, and the thunder. For a while there, it felt like we skipped right over spring — we went from a snowy early April to summer-like weather by the middle of the month. These last two days have felt like spring, finally, and I’m glad to have it.

Tag der Arbeit

Posted on May 2, 2013 by admin

We get different holidays here. No Thanksgiving. No Martin Luther King Day. No Presidents’ Day or Columbus Day (although I don’t think I’ve ever actually gotten either of those last two off of work). No Fourth of July. But, of course, we get other holidays — St. Stephen’s Day (the patron saint of Vienna, also, conveniently, the day after Christmas), Austria Day (similar to America’s July 4th), a smorgasbord of religious holidays (Good Friday, Easter Monday and Whit Monday for the Christians, a few of the Eid holidays for the Muslims) and May Day/Worker’s Day/Labor Day.

It’s a little weird “celebrating” a socialist holiday, coming from a country where the term socialism is so vilified (though we Americans have our own Labor Day in September, we just don’t think of it in the same way). Regardless, I’m not going to complain about a day off in the most beautiful time of year here. We intended to spend the day outdoors, enjoying May in Vienna. We gave Liam the option of choosing our activity for the day (since B got to choose on Sunday) and he chose, surprisingly, to stay home.

So we did. Per his request, we watched a movie (with popcorn), we played video games, we played hide & seek, we raced trucks all over the house, we watched tv and we had macaroni & cheese for dinner. It was lots of fun and very restorative. We had a great day.

I’m also using May Day as an ironic, if unintentional, opportunity to change some things about my blogging habits. We have been here more than two years — beyond our initially intended stay. With very few exceptions, I have blogged nearly every day that we’ve been here. I was determined to be religious about it to avoid only writing on the days that I felt most inspired to write — usually the best days. I wanted my chronicle of our travels and adventures to be honest, and I felt that for it to be truly honest, I had to require myself to write, every day, regardless of how much I wanted to or how easily the words came. And I think I’ve done that — I think I’ve accurately captured the thrills, the failures, the struggles, the homesickness, the occasional boredom and the personal discoveries that this journey has brought about.

And so, I think I’ve kept my promise to myself. I promised myself 2 years of daily records, and I’ve done that.

I’m not going to stop writing. I love recording the myriad details of this adventure. I love that these little nuances will be memorialized for the future, for myself, for the boys. I love that I’ve been able to be a help to others taking on this immense challenge by giving them a window into the reality of this process. I will continue to write, to record, to capture, to share.

But maybe not every day. So yesterday, I marked Workers’ Day by not writing. My blog was silent for the first time since my intentional Christmas holiday. It’s a liberty I’m going to allow myself more and more going forward. I hope to keep the honesty just as vivid, but allow myself more space to breathe, to rest, and to enjoy our last year here.

Ka-ciao bella!

Posted on April 30, 2013 by admin

I am often inspired by the enthusiasm that my kids have for the many moments of a day that tend to pass unnoticed to adults. Getting dressed — at any time and in anything — is one such occasion in our house.

I think Liam started the tradition of celebrating getting dressed in something new (and by “new” I only mean something they weren’t just wearing — it could be out of the drawer or even something they had on yesterday that still has some life left in it) but it has caught on. It started when they picked up a phrase from a book we have that is based on the second Cars movie. The Italian car (Francesco) mimics Lightning McQueen’s catch phrase of “Ka-chow!” and changes it to be more Italian “Ciao bella!” The boys melded both phrases together into, “Ka-ciao bella” and then asked us what it meant. We approximated our way to the rough translation of “hello beautiful”. They practiced it prior to our trip to Italy, and it has completely stuck.

And so, absolutely any time they get dressed in a fresh outfit — in the morning, after a messy dinner, after a bath — they come running into the room, slide to a stop, and announce, “Ka-ciao bella!” wearing their new outfit and a magnificent grin. I love it, and I love them.

Living room campouts, again

Posted on April 29, 2013 by admin

I’m pretty sure that if we’d never left the US, we would have taken the kids camping by now, at least once, even if we’d only gone as far as the wilds of Grandpa’s backyard. As it is, we haven’t yet, not really. But we have gotten a fair bit of practice, having sleepovers in the tent in the living room.

It’s a habit we got out of over the winter. Mostly, I think, because the boys are now sharing a room, so now every night is kind of a sleepover for them. But last weekend, the boys requested another campout sleepover in the living room, and Dan camped out with them. This past weekend, they wanted to do it again, and I took a turn.

It was really great fun, and it made me sorry we’ve gotten out of the habit. After our usual Friday night movie night (which has sometimes turned into Friday night TV night, because it’s a constant struggle to find appropriate yet engaging movies for a 2 and 4 year old), for which we did as camping themed TV shows, we got the tent all ready. The boys snuggled up in their sleeping bags (actually fleece lined buntings intended for the stroller — I wish I had one myself) and we got out the iPad to do some stargazing. We looked up stars and planets and imagined what it would be like to actually be camping outside. Then the boys curled up for sleep and I got myself situated on the couch.

Not surprisingly, it took a while for them to settle down (because camping is fun!) but they did, and drifted off peacefully, although I realized, prior to falling asleep myself, that both boys had wiggled out of their “sleeping bags” and out of the tent entirely — they were actually cuddled up together out on the carpet. But they were happy. Liam woke once in the middle of the night unsure of where he was, but I helped him get back into the tent, back into his sleeping bag, and back to sleep.

We had a great night. And waking up to my boys snoozing peacefully in their tent was pretty fantastic. I’m glad we’ve revived the living room campouts.

Schönbrunn in the spring

Posted on April 28, 2013 by admin

Our first two Aprils in Vienna were pretty much the same — lots of wind, a fair bit of rain and mostly chilly days, with just enough warm and sunny moments to give us hope that spring was really coming. This year has been completely different. Less than a month ago, we were lamenting the snow and continuing winter, wondering when we’d be able to enjoy the outdoors again and waiting for the flowers to bloom. And today — this whole past week, actually — has been sunny and warm. Shorts weather. Bordering on hot, and necessitating sunscreen.

It’s like we skipped spring altogether, which is kind of unfortunate, since it’s been one of my favorite things about living in Vienna. (The US mid-Atlantic, where I’m from, is notorious for skipping right from winter to summer. It’s considered perfectly normal to switch from using the central heating to the air conditioning in less that a week’s time.)

But, although I do kind of wish we’d made a more gradual transition to warm temperatures, I’m not going to waste the beautiful weather worrying about it (besides, it’s equally likely that May will be cold and wet since April really hasn’t been). So today we got outside to enjoy it.

We gave B a selection of options to choose from for our day, and he chose a trip to Schönbrunn, so we packed ourselves up and headed out there. We ran down shaded pathways, looked in the dirt at lots of bugs, visited Neptune’s Fountain, and climbed part of the way up the hill to the Gloriette (and then, of course, ran back down). We enjoyed the sun and the beautiful blue sky and the wonderful backdrop of imperial Vienna. And we marveled at the fact that while we sweated and worried about shade and sunburn today, we were at the Schönbrunn Easter market less than a month ago, shivering in our winter coats.

It’s been a strange spring in Vienna, but we were glad to make the most of a summery day at Schönbrunn today. B made a great choice, and we had a great day.

Finger paint

Posted on April 27, 2013 by admin

I don’t know how I managed it, but somehow, in my nearly 5 years as a mom, I’ve managed to never before delve into the world of finger paint. For Benjamin’s second Christmas, he got an easel, including paints, brushes and paper for painting, which we’ve used sporadically. Honestly, it always seems like so much trouble — getting everything set up, trying to contain the paint in the general area of the paper, dealing with the resulting mess — that we don’t do it very often. When we lived in Virginia, I’d set it up sometimes in the kitchen (with the easy to clean up tile floor) and since we’ve been here, I’ve actually set it up on the terrace a few times. The boys always enjoy it when we get it out, but the mess is usually pretty significant. We still have a few marks on the walls from our last painting adventure, and I never manage to get all of the paint out of their clothes.

I guess I always imagined that finger paints would be worse. No brushes, actually requiring the kids to use their hands . . . it seems like if brushes were a mess, finger paint would be a disaster. I think that’s why we never did it. Yesterday, though, I was feeling brave. B was off of school (teacher training day) — it can be so hard on days like that to not have the day turn into an entire 10 hours of tv and video games. I’ve been thinking ahead to the summer, when I’ll have both boys home, and reminding myself to be proactive about getting us all involved in activities together, so yesterday I (rather bravely) asked the kids what they’d like to do that didn’t involve anything electronic. Liam voted to build trucks with Legos (which we do a lot — I’m rather an expert) and Benjamin wanted to paint. I had a little moment of panic when I imagined setting up the easel, getting everything out, containing the boys and paint and then cleaning everything up. And then I remembered that the finger paints at least claim to be “washable”, and we wouldn’t need an easel or anything fancy — I could just set them up with the paint at the table in our living room and some sheets of computer paper. So I decided to give it a try.

And we had a great time. After a tentative start (both boys were worried about making a mess . . . I think mommy’s mess-aphobia must be catching) they absolutely loved it. I was really surprised to watch them get in to it — Benjamin was full of messy enthusiasm, squishing the paint between his fingers and experimenting with the outcome of mixing colors, while Liam was dainty and purposeful with his choices. (I had expected the opposite.) B made several handprint pictures, while Liam refused. B made a butterfly, Liam made a rainbow. They both laughed and giggled and showed off their pictures to each other.

Truly, we all had a wonderful time. And, as it turns out, the paint was easily contained at the table. (And it actually appears to be washable. I got it off of the kids and off of the table without a problem, and it seems to have come out of their clothes as well.) The boys loved it — they had so much fun playing and making a “mess” (which really wasn’t bad) and being creative, and they couldn’t wait to tell Dan about it when he got home. I’m so glad that we’ve (finally) discovered the joy of finger painting. It was well worth the trouble.

Going on an adventure

Posted on April 26, 2013 by admin

Every so often, we make a plan to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids. (The goal is to do it with each of the boys about once a month, but so often, things get in the way — travel, illness, incompatible combinations of available free time and the desired activity — and we really do it a lot less frequently than that.) Part of the fun of having the time together is that the kids get to be the one to decide the activity. It’s completely open ended, as long as it’s something we can do in about an hour. We’ve been surprised that so far, the kids’ requests have been incredibly modest — so far, we’ve gone on bus rides, ridden on the U-Bahn just to see where it goes, gone out for hot chocolate or cookies, gone to the playground.

Yesterday, Liam and I finally got a chance to have our hour together, after over a month of trying to find the right time (which is really ridiculous, given that I spend 3-4 hours alone with Liam every day). He wanted to go for a bus ride, to see where the bus that we ride every day would go if we didn’t get off until the end.

So we rode out to the end of the line, to a part of Vienna called Aspern. Liam looked out the window of the bus and told me all about everything he could see. Once we arrived out in Aspern, we saw that it was mostly residential with a cute little town center. It didn’t feel like being in Vienna at all (and truly is almost at the edge of what is actually Vienna). It was a beautiful spring day, and we enjoyed a little walk around (Liam got to navigate) and then I got turned around when it was time to head home and ended up walking twice as far to find the bus as was really necessary. We had a great time exploring, and Liam took a bit of a nap on the way home. It was a good adventure.

And, since it’s spring again, and we’re all feeling (relatively) healthy, we’ll be exploring and adventuring a lot more. I have a list of places to go and things to see, and I’m ready to start on it. And I’m sure Benjamin and Liam will each continue to add their own destinations, as well. I love these adventures with them.

A Mommy Abroad

Our big adventure, as a family of three.

Category Archives: Adventure in Vienna